Church hit hard by powerful storm

Curtis Johnson / The Herald-Dispatch

High winds ripped off the roof and steeple from Open Door Baptist Church shortly after 1 a.m. Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, at the intersection of 19th Street West and Madison Avenue in Huntington.

Feb. 22, 2014 @ 12:00 AM

HUNTINGTON Justina Adkins spent time decorating her church for a sweetheart banquet Thursday, hours before high winds ripped off the building's roof and steeple causing hundreds of thousands in damage and a broken heart for the woman who called Open Door Baptist Church home since 1985.

"This is amazing, this is sad," said Adkins, of Lavalette. "It's just hard to believe."

Cabell County 911 received word of the incident at 1:25 a.m. Friday as a frontal system swept through the Tri-State with heavy rain and gusty winds. That combination brought down trees, knocked out electricity to thousands and caused increased water levels on Fourpole Creek at Ritter Park in Huntington.

But no where was the damage as significant as it was at Open Door Baptist, located at 19th Street West and Madison Avenue in Huntington.

The peeling away of its roof left the church open to flooding and subsequent damage, said Chase Ward, an estimator at Classic Construction. He estimated 3 inches of water stood in the basement as the church's walls retained pockets of water and its ceiling started to buckle.

George Adkins, 65, lives two doors from the church. He listened to the howling wind early Friday as tired to fall asleep. He heard a loud bang, followed by a moment of quiet, then interrupted by the sound of fire trucks that stopped instead of passing by 19th Street West.

"I didn't dream the church's roof would come off," he said. "It's been there forever. You can see that's solid wood. It was constructed good. I guess it caught it just right."

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Church hit hard by powerful storm